Trip to Gili Air

On Wednesday, we headed to another island, Gili Air, with about 18 other families for four nights of fun.  I somehow ended up organizing the trip for the group and it luckily went off without a hitch, or at least without any major hitches. 

We loved the slowness of the island and the lack of cars or motorbikes.  While there, Owen went scuba diving and Henry snorkeled for his first time. We saw a couple turtles swimming in the ocean and a bunch of baby turtles in a hatchery.  It was another experience where we looked at each other and said, "this would never happen in the states."

On the first full day there, we took a glass bottom boat on a snorkeling trip to a couple of the nearby gilis (islands) in search of turtles. Owen and I had a magical moment where we the only ones following the snorkeling guide, hoping to see a turtle.  It appeared that we were out of luck as we headed back to the boat that was waiting for us.  As we got close to the boat, the guide said, "look a turtle."  It took several tries for me to find it when I finally realized that the large rock-looking mound on the bottom of the sea floor was a huge turtle.  He swam down and brought it up to Owen who got to pet it and swim with it for a bit.  This was a dream come true.  We then went to Gili Meno where we had lunch, waited out a rain deluge and then visited a turtle hatchery.  


The next day, Owen took a morning scuba class in a pool, learning some scuba basics.  We thought this would be it, since technically you aren't supposed to scuba before 10 years old, but then they said he could go out on the boat that was leaving at 2 to scuba in the open water.  It was a trip that some other kids were going on who were a bit younger and it was a shallow dive.  I asked if I could dive with him since I haven't been diving in about 10 years and was certified 16 years ago.  When he first got out there, he was nervous and even asked to go to the boat once or twice.  I encouraged him to try just a bit longer and soon he relaxed and settled into it.  At one point while diving, he motioned to the dive master that he wanted to go up.  When we got to the surface, the dive master asked what was wrong and Owen said, "I just wanted to tell you how awesome this is."  Even under water he can't stop talking.  The dive master suggested that they talk about the dive when we got back on the boat and enjoy the dive while we still had time.

The other highlights included a banana boat ride for Owen, a horse and cart ride around the island, walking and biking around the island, building a huge sand fortress with about 10 other kids during a torrential downpour and dinners on the beach with the kids playing on the beach and the adults getting a little adult time.